Two years ago, at the COP15 UN biodiversity summit in Montreal, 196 countries agreed to set up a fund for projects to conserve and restore nature – but it has struggled to attract large contributions. Now, at COP16 in Cali, government negotiators are clashing over what to do with it. A group of developing countries – concerned about their access to the existing fund – is pushing a proposal to establish a new fund for biodiversity under the COP. The plan is for it to replace the one created in Montreal, which is managed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and offer biodiversity-rich developing countries a bigger say in how it is run. …Experts say the future of the fund could become the biggest issue for debate at the Colombia summit, adding that disagreements over the developing-country proposal were starting to obstruct progress on other finance negotiations.
Additional coverage in:
- Financial Times: Five takeaways on the state of biodiversity finance
- The National Observer: Negotiations are underway, but political turmoil is bogging down Canada’s response
- Vox: Every country is negotiating a plan to save nature. Except the US.
- The Guardian: Biodiversity declining even faster in ‘protected’ areas, scientists warn Cop16
- The Consersation: As Colombia hosts a UN biodiversity summit, its own Amazonian rainforest is in crisis